


The Doctor is In

by stellarmeadow



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Coming Out, Eddie has questions, Hen has answers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-24 11:41:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30071727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarmeadow/pseuds/stellarmeadow
Summary: Eddie took a deep breath, letting it out slowly before he said, “Okay, maybe it’s my brain that’s too loud for me to sleep.”“So what’s rattling around in there?”“How did you—” Eddie closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again. “No, when—I mean…did you always know you were gay?” he got out at last.
Relationships: Eddie Diaz & Henrietta "Hen" Wilson, Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz, Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Comments: 44
Kudos: 561
Collections: 9-1-1 Tales, Finished 911 Stories I Love





	The Doctor is In

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sitting in my bunny folder for a while with just a random few words of an idea, and suddenly tonight, there was this. :)

Hen yawned as she flipped through _Patient-Centered Interviewing_. The firehouse was the kind of quiet that only middle of the night could bring, and only when they’d had a long day of calls that had finally given way to a few hours of peace.

She glanced longingly in the direction of the bunk room, but she had a test Friday, and she had to make it through at least two more chapters before she could nap. Even if she disagreed with a couple of the instructions in the book.

No, especially because she disagreed. She had to know the answers in the book if she was going to pass.

She’d read the same page three times without retaining a word when she heard soft footsteps, a moment before Eddie appeared around the corner from the bunks. 

“Hey,” he said, his voice just above a whisper as he made his way to the couch. “Don’t let me stop you from studying.” 

Hen marked her place and put the book down. “You can’t stop me from something I’m not really doing.”

Eddie sat down at the other end of the couch, propping one sock foot up on the cushion, and leaning his chin on his knee as only someone with washboard abs and no chest could manage. 

“Couldn’t sleep?” Hen asked, when Eddie didn’t say anything. 

He shrugged. “Buck’s breathing really loud.” 

“Really?” Hen twisted to rest her back against the arm of the couch so she was facing Eddie. “He’s usually pretty quiet unless it’s allergy season.”

“Not tonight.” 

Considering Eddie always managed to make sure he had the bunk next to Buck’s, maybe he just had some superhuman attunement to Buck’s breathing. But that seemed unlikely. 

She nudged his foot with her own. “What’s going on?”

Eddie took a deep breath, letting it out slowly before he said, “Okay, maybe it’s my brain that’s too loud for me to sleep.”

“So what’s rattling around in there?”

“How did you—” Eddie closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again. “No, when—I mean…did you always know you were gay?” he got out at last.

Oh. “Yeah. I mean, kinda. It wasn’t like I knew that was a thing when I was three or something,” Hen said. “But I always knew there was something that didn’t quite match most of the people around me. And when girls in my class started going all giggly over guys and I really just kind of hated the guys that the girls I liked had crushes on? That was hard to ignore.”

“Thanks,” Eddie said with a nod.

When he didn’t say anything else, she nudged his foot again. “Not that I mind the question,” she said, “but what prompted it?”

“Nothing,” he said, far too quickly. “Just…you know, things you think about in the middle of the night when you can’t sleep.”

Hen raised her eyebrows. “You lie around thinking about my sexuality when you can’t sleep?”

“No, sorry, I didn’t mean that,” Eddie said. “I mean, I was just thinking about how people…about how they…I mean sometimes they might think one thing and then they realize that…not that it’s not possible that they—”

“Eddie,” Hen interrupted, taking mercy on him. “Are you trying to figure out if you’re too old to come out?”

He opened his mouth, then closed it again. “Not _exactly_.” He took a deep breath. “I am kind of wondering,” he said, the words halting, “if maybe I could be bi and just not have realized it?” 

“Sure.” 

Eddie blinked. “Really?”

“Yeah, of course. You were married, you had a kid—you could have just brushed aside any thoughts like that without doing it consciously the same way you would most thoughts about girls while you were married. And I’d be willing to bet the military would have drilled it into your head, intentionally or not, to never let them surface.” 

“Oh.” 

He stared down at the floor in silence until she nudged him again. “So is this a sudden surge of noticing a lot of hot guys in a town full of them?” she asked.

“Not exactly.” 

He kept his eyes down. “Oh, so is it suddenly noticing one guy in particular is a lot hotter than you ever realized?”

Eddie’s eyes flicked up to hers, then back down again, as his face flushed red. “Um….”

“Eddie,” Hen said, reaching over to lift his chin until he met her gaze. “If you don’t want to talk any more about it, that’s fine. But if you do, I’m here.” 

His anxious expression eased a little into a small smile. “Thanks.” He took a breath. “I’m just—it’s all new to me. And I mean I suck at this stuff to begin with—if Shannon hadn’t asked me out we’d have probably never gotten together. But now there’s a whole other pronoun and I just…I don’t know if it’s the same, I don’t know if I can even ask, or if he even _wants_ to be asked in the first place.” Eddie leaned back against the couch. “I thought girls were tough….”

“Well, I’m no expert on asking out men,” Hen said, keeping every bit of calculation out of her voice as she said, innocently, “but maybe you could ask Maddie—”

“No!” Eddie winced and lowered his voice. “No, no, no, that’s a very bad idea.”

Hen smiled. “So it’s Buck you’re interested in, then?”

Eddie’s eyes widened to almost comic proportions. “How did you….”

Hen patted his knee. “Eddie, baby, I’m pretty sure we’ve been on DOA calls where even the corpse couldn’t miss you two making eyes at each other.”

He blinked. “What?” he said, still blinking. “You mean you think Buck…I mean, that he—”

“I don’t think,” Hen said. “I know.”

“Did he say something?”

“Men,” Hen muttered, thanking God for Karen. “He didn’t have to, honey. His face speaks better than he does any day.”

Eddie thought about that for a second. “You’re sure about this?” he asked. “I mean, absolutely sure?”

“Well, no one can be absolutely sure about anything,” Hen said. “But would I go to Vegas and bet my house on it? Hell yeah, I would.”

Eddie stared at his hands. “I don’t even know how to ask him,” he said, finally, looking up at Hen.

“Pretty sure, ‘Wanna go out?’ is all you need.”

A small smile tugged at the edge of Eddie’s mouth for a moment, before it turned into a frown. “You really think he’d say yes?”

“I think he’d probably jump up and down and run around here like a toddler on RedBull,” Hen said. “And then he’d realize he forgot to say yes and say it about a hundred times.” She grinned. “If you’re lucky he might even kiss you on the spot.”

Eddie spluttered and blushed, but the smile tugged again, and this time it stayed. 

“So,” she said, after a minute, “are you gonna ask?”

“Maybe,” Eddie said, pushing himself up off the couch. “But first I’m gonna try to get some sleep.” He smiled down at her. “Thank you.” 

“Anytime,” she said. “I mean that. I’m here if you want to talk.”

“I know. Thank you.” 

He turned and padded back down the hall to the bunks. Hen picked up her book and started to read again, but after another three times through the page without remembering a word, she put it down and headed for the bunks herself. 

Who knew, maybe she’d find Eddie and Buck holding hands as they slept.

\--  
end


End file.
